Preface: A History of Modern Astronomy
in Japan
Modern astronomy fascinates people with its challenging wide range of discoveries
about the sun, stars, and the universe. Japan is now making exciting discoveries in a
wide range of fields in astrophysics. While Japan has a long history of astronomy
since the seventeenth century, remarkable developments in astrophysics belong to
the latter half of the twentieth century.
I have long been interested in the history of astrophysics from its origin up to the
present with special attention to the lives and works of pioneering astronomers. I
planned to write the history of modern astronomy in Japan on the basis of the same
idea and started the writing of history on this line. However, a difficulty has arose in
the history of the last quarter of the twentieth century by the appearance of so many
numbers of researchers and research subjects. I am not a professional historian of
astronomy but an astrophysicist who has worked in several fields of stellar and
galactic astronomy since the late 1950s. In this situation, it is almost impossible to
cover all the research fields of astrophysics. That is why the subjects in this book
have been selected based on my interest.
In this book, I divided Japan’s timeline of astronomical history into the following
four periods from the Tokugawa era to the postwar era until around the end of the
twentieth century:
1. Tokugawa era: 1603–1868: age of calendar-making,
2. Meiji-Taisho era: 1868–1926: age of foreign studies,
3. Early Showa era: 1926 ~ 1945: age of self-efforts,
4. Postwar era (late Showa and Heisei period): 1946 ~ 2000: age of development of
astronomy and astrophysics,
where Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei denote the names of emperors, as historical
eras in Japan are casually named after the emperor who ruled during that particular
era. The history in these periods will be presented in separate eight chapters. Besides,
the names of Japanese people are given surname first according to the custom in
Japan, which will be followed throughout this book.
v
in Japan
Modern astronomy fascinates people with its challenging wide range of discoveries
about the sun, stars, and the universe. Japan is now making exciting discoveries in a
wide range of fields in astrophysics. While Japan has a long history of astronomy
since the seventeenth century, remarkable developments in astrophysics belong to
the latter half of the twentieth century.
I have long been interested in the history of astrophysics from its origin up to the
present with special attention to the lives and works of pioneering astronomers. I
planned to write the history of modern astronomy in Japan on the basis of the same
idea and started the writing of history on this line. However, a difficulty has arose in
the history of the last quarter of the twentieth century by the appearance of so many
numbers of researchers and research subjects. I am not a professional historian of
astronomy but an astrophysicist who has worked in several fields of stellar and
galactic astronomy since the late 1950s. In this situation, it is almost impossible to
cover all the research fields of astrophysics. That is why the subjects in this book
have been selected based on my interest.
In this book, I divided Japan’s timeline of astronomical history into the following
four periods from the Tokugawa era to the postwar era until around the end of the
twentieth century:
1. Tokugawa era: 1603–1868: age of calendar-making,
2. Meiji-Taisho era: 1868–1926: age of foreign studies,
3. Early Showa era: 1926 ~ 1945: age of self-efforts,
4. Postwar era (late Showa and Heisei period): 1946 ~ 2000: age of development of
astronomy and astrophysics,
where Meiji, Taisho, Showa, and Heisei denote the names of emperors, as historical
eras in Japan are casually named after the emperor who ruled during that particular
era. The history in these periods will be presented in separate eight chapters. Besides,
the names of Japanese people are given surname first according to the custom in
Japan, which will be followed throughout this book.
v